| A | B |
|---|
| Fertile Crescent | a large arc of rich farmland extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean See |
| Silt | a mix of rich soil and small rocks |
| Irrigation | a way of supplying water to an area of land |
| Canals | human-made waterways |
| Surplus | more of something than is needed |
| Division of Labor | an arrangement in which people specialize in specific tasks |
| Rural | having to do with the countryside |
| Urban | having to do with the city |
| City-State | a political unit consisting of a city and the surrounding countryside |
| Empire | land with different territories and people under a single rule |
| Polytheism | the worship of many gods |
| Priests | people who performed religious ceremonies |
| Social Hierarchy | a division of society by rank or class |
| Cuneiform | the Sumerian system of writing, which used symbols to represent basic parts of words |
| Pictographs | picture symbols that represented objects such as trees or animals |
| Scribe | writer |
| Epics | long poems that tell the story of a hero |
| Architecture | the science of building |
| Ziggurat | a pyramid-shaped temple tower |
| Monarch | a ruler of a kingdom or empire |
| Hammurabi's Code | the earliest known written collection of laws, comprising 282 laws that dealt with almost every part of life |
| Chariot | a wheeled, horse-drawn battle car |
| Nebuchadnezzar | the Chaldean king who rebuilt Babylon |
| Alphabet | a set of letters than can be combined to form written words |
| artisans | Skilled workers. |
| Babylon | A city built by the Amorites in the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley. |
| culture | Way of life |
| Gilgamesh | A legendary priest-king who was thought to have traveled the world, performing great acts of courage. |
| Hammurabi | The king of Babylon, best known for his code of law. |
| hereditary | Passed down from parent to child. |
| levee | Raised areas of soil used to keep back floodwaters. |
| Mesopotamia | "The land between two rivers." |
| Meaning of ziggurat | "mountain of god" or "hill of heaven" |
| priest-king | Leaders who were also high preists |
| reform | Improvement |
| reign | Period of power |
| Sargon I | A ruler from an area in northern Mesopotamia known as Akkad; created the world's first empire. |
| scribe | Professional writer |
| Sumer | A region of southern Mesopotamia where the earliest known civilization on earth developed. |
| surplus | Extra |
| ziggurat | A temple made up of a series of square levels, each smaller than the one below it. |
| silt | rich soil |
| irrigation | to supply water to crops |
| cuneiform | world's first writing system |
| wheel | a Sumerian invention still used today |
| Mesopotamia | "land between two rivers" |
| Hammurabi | Babylonian emperor who create the first written code of laws |
| Sargon | world's first emperor |
| Tigris | one of the two Mesopotamia rivers |
| polytheism | belief in many gods |
| scribes | a writer |
| alphabet | most important development of the Phonecians |
